Episode 48: Paula Farina (Farina's)

Meet Paula Farina! She's a co-owner (with her two brothers Anthony and Mike shown in the picture) of Farina's, a bicycle and power equipment store here in Watertown. We talk about how the shop is celebrating its 50th anniversary, so we dig into the shop's journey from being opened by her Italian immigrant parents, the many trends over the years from BMX to e-bikes, the work put in to become one of the top bike shops in the country, how pairing power equipment with bikes makes sense, the changes they've seen in Watertown in 50 years, and more.

Find out more about Farina's at farinas.com

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:07

Hi there, welcome to the Little Local Conversations podcast. I'm your host, matt Hanna. Every episode, I sit down for a conversation with someone in Watertown to discover the people, places, stories and ideas of Watertown. This time I sat down with Paula Farina who, along with her two brothers, is one of the owners of Farina's A-B, a bike and power equipment shop over on Galen Street here in Watertown, and they're actually celebrating their 50th anniversary of being in business this year. So we get a bit into that journey and her personal journey with the store and talk about the changes in bikes over the years. So yeah, I'll let her introduce herself and then we'll get into the conversation.

Speaker 2 0:41

My name is Paula Farina Paulus. I'm one of the owners of Farina's and I own the company with two siblings, anthony and Mike.

Speaker 1 0:51

We are family owned and operated Nice. So maybe we'll go back in history with the store first and then we'll pick it up when you come into the picture a little bit. So you were mentioning before you're coming up on the 50th anniversary, so that means roughly around 1975, right, exactly?

Speaker 2 1:02

1975. The shop was founded by our parents, Jack and Lana, who immigrated to the US from a very small town in Italy. They came here in 1955. It was your typical immigrant story. They came with very little money, couldn't speak English very well, they had one uncle here in the States that did the paperwork so that my father could come over, but other than that the rest of the family remained in Italy or other places around the world, but in the US it was just them and they worked really hard. And 20 years after being here they took a chance. They used every penny of their savings, bought the building on Galen Street it was an old tire shop at the time and decided to open a bike shop, for whatever reason. So that's how Farina's began.

Speaker 1 1:51

Yeah, so they started the shop.

Speaker 2 1:53

And what was that experience, like you know, starting the store, getting it all started from what you know of I know a lot about it because as kids there were five children and we all basically grew up here at the store. Coming here after school. We spent hours upon hours here. The store initially started as a bicycle shop with auto repair on the side. My father was an unbelievable mechanic, just had a knack for fixing anything or everything. And thank goodness he had those skills, because that's what allowed Farina's to grow and to change to what it is today.

Speaker 2 2:29

So they started with bicycles and a lot of people ask well, why in the world do you have bicycles and power equipment? It's a question that people ask us all the time and when you hear the story about it it makes a lot of sense. So they quickly realized that selling bikes in December or January and February in New England was not a very good business idea. So they needed something to sort of supplement the winter. And because my father was very mechanical and knew how to work on car engines, motorcycles, bicycles, someone had said to him Jack, why don't you maybe try selling snow blowowers? It's a new thing, snow's in New England why don't you give it a shot? So that was maybe a year or two after he opened the store and what sort of got that whole power equipment thing going was the blizzard of 78.

Speaker 1 3:19

So once all that snow came, and people realized how valuable snow blowers were.

Speaker 2 3:24

That part of the business just sort of exploded. So it went from bikes in the spring fall to snow blowers in the wintertime, and that's really how it started. And then over the years it evolved so that it wasn't just snow blowers. It turned into lawnmowers in the summer and trimmers and leaf blowers and generators and the service that goes along with selling all of those products. And at the same time the bicycle world was changing from bicycles being more of like a toy to actually being something of a specialty retailer. Bicycles went from the days of 10-speed bikes to BMX bikes. We've seen all the trends BMX bikes, mountain bikes.

Speaker 1 4:06

You're sitting here surrounded by a few fat tire bikes. Right now, fat tire bikes, electric bikes.

Speaker 2 4:10

We've seen so many changes over the years and at this point we have two businesses that could function independently. But for us it has worked, and it has worked for the past 50 years. So we're very proud of the fact that we've had our business going for that long and we've been able to change and adapt to consumer trends, environment, location. We've been in the same building for 50 years, so we've seen lots of changes in Watertown too, but it's all about adapting to what you have and where you are Right.

Speaker 1 4:42

Yeah. So you're right here on Galen Street, you're right near Watertown Yard, so that's been a yeah. So what was it like for you growing up, being in the store? When you were younger, how did you view the store?

Speaker 2 4:55

Well, it was like a second home. We went to school up the street and after school my mother and father were always at the store so we would come here after school. So we really grew up here. There were five children. We all worked here as kids, as teenagers, and then, ultimately, three of us are now running it and have been for 35, 40 years. At this point. It's been great. It's been a great run.

Speaker 1 5:19

We love what we do. Did you ever have another job or anything? Or did you ever have another job or was this like? Has this been your entire work life? So?

Speaker 2 5:26

for me personally, it's a little bit different from my siblings. So I am the fourth of the five children and our parents made sure one of their goals or dreams was to send their kids to college. So we were all first-generation college kids. All of us went to college. My older siblings had a chance to work outside of the store before deciding on their own to come back to work here. My circumstance was a little bit different. I was a senior in college. I went to Babson College in Wellesley. My oldest sister she was the oldest sibling was diagnosed with cancer and unfortunately she was a very integral part in getting the business going. She was the oldest, she went to Bentley College and was very business oriented, so she really helped my parents get it to the next level. Unfortunately she passed away from cancer. She is still very much part of our everyday being here at the store and always will be so for me.

Speaker 2 6:24

After graduating I had to make the decision on whether to get involved and come right into the family business or go and do something else, and I made the decision to come and be at the store. Never regretted it, never, not for a minute. I know I did the right thing. I love what I do. I love having a family business. It has its challenges. Even though I didn't have me personally, I did not have a chance to go and work outside of the store. I have no regrets about that whatsoever. My siblings all had a chance to do that and they did decide to come back. They did the research for you. Yeah, but my sister was. I do want to mention that. I don't think the business would have gotten to the next level without her. So she is definitely here in spirit every day, gotcha.

Speaker 1 7:09

And what else is there about being in a family business that people might not know? You know?

Speaker 2 7:14

Oh, it's challenging Most days. Most days we get along great. Some days we're ready to kill each other, but we work really well together. We have very different skill sets. My brother, anthony, is more the accounting management person. Mike is very mechanical, so he handles all the service side and technical stuff. I'm more of the marketing social person in the shop. I do all the buying, most of the selling, but we all wear multiple hats here and I think it's because of that and because we have different backgrounds that it all works, that we work together. We use everybody's skills to our advantage and it seems to be working pretty well.

Speaker 1 7:54

Yeah, it sounds, sounds good. It's not like the siblings fighting over the same toys fighting over the same job, right?

Speaker 1 7:58

yeah, right, right, you all grew up, discovering your own niche there yes, yeah exactly nice cool, and so when we talk a little bit about bikes you kind of explained it a little bit, but it's interesting to hear how bikes have changed over the years. So you know bikes when you were first in the store and then changing over the years are. So you know, bikes when you were first in the store and then changing over the years. Are there any changes that particularly stand out for you and where, like you, were surprised by something that happened?

Speaker 2 8:20

Well, we've seen lots of trends over the years and they've all been really fun. I actually had a customer in yesterday and we get these kinds of customers in frequently Younger man in his mid-50s. He stopped in, he was in town and he said I just had to come back in because I loved coming here as a teenager. It's where I got my first BMX bike and we hear so many people who come in and say I loved Farina's because they had the best selection of BMX bikes. This was back in the early 80s. So for any kid growing up in Watertown or Newton, they probably remember some of the massive stunt BMX stunt shows that we put on out in front of the shop with huge ramps. They were sponsored by Mountain Dew and GT Bicycles. People still remember those shows and they come in and tell us about them. Those same people now have children of their own. They bring their kids in and talk about oh, this was the place to go. So that was the BMX era. Then we had, you know, the Lance Armstrong road bike era, the whole road bike, greg LeMond, that whole sort of era. Then came mountain bikes and we've sort of evolved around all of that. We don't consider ourselves, you know only the high-end shop. We pretty much carry it all. These days it's a lot of electric bikes, that's sort of the hot thing. They've all been fun.

Speaker 2 9:40

We luckily work in an industry where people who come in to shop here are in a great mood. They're excited about biking. They love the fact that we're family-owned. We have great service. We're not a generic cookie-cutter chain. We never want to be that and that's part of the reason why we're here. We made some pretty interesting business decisions to keep it smaller and keep it family and we like to think that we're just the right size. We're not a mom and pop shop. We're not a massive chain. We're that sweet spot in the middle where you get great service, an unbelievable selection of bikes. You can see it. We're sitting in the showroom with at least 350 bikes in the showroom plus another 400 to 500 in stock in the building. So we're definitely not a small shop by any means, but we haven't lost the small business mentality and attitude. I don't think that'll ever change. I think that's who we are. We're really proud of it, especially as we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year. It's a big accomplishment for us. We're happy.

Speaker 1 10:41

Yeah, and so you mentioned you said there were some particular decisions you made to stay at this size. What are some of those decisions that you made.

Speaker 2 10:49

Well, we could have moved to a different location, but we decided to stay here in Watertown Square and that's been great. We love Watertown. When you try to grow, you oftentimes lose that personalized feel that people get when they come into the store, and to us, that's what sort of makes us special or makes us a little bit different from current bicycle retailers that are out there now. Most of them are either a big chain store or have just gotten so big that they don't have that personalized feel when they come into the store.

Speaker 1 11:21

Yeah, what makes it personalized? Is that just the service? Is it? Do you keep stock based on customer requests or like what gives that feel?

Speaker 2 11:29

We're always changing, but we're always consistent. That's what we like to say. We're extremely consistent. People who come in here know what they're going to get. They're going to get, for one, the same three main people here myself and my brothers, so there are always at least two of us here every single day. But when people come in, they know what they're going to get. It's that same feel. It's dealing with the same people.

Speaker 2 11:52

I've sold bikes to three generations of people. They came in as a kid, they came in when they had kids and now they're bringing the grandkids in. It's a very special thing to be able to say that. It's just. It's a really nice feel when people come in no pressure, great selection, the service to go along with it, and we're very respected and we've worked hard to get where we are. We've been recognized nationally as one of the top 100 bike shops in the country and that's almost a decade's worth of awards and you don't get that very easily. You really have to work hard to earn that and we just never forget where we came from. You know we work hard. We don't take anything for granted. We keep going.

Speaker 1 12:35

Yeah, yeah, and so maybe we should talk about what a little bit more detail what actually you do Take me through like a typical day-to-day of you and maybe of your brothers, to get the idea of this scope Typical day Very long.

Speaker 2 12:47

I wear a lot of hats. My favorite part of the job is dealing one-on-one with the customers. It makes me happy. We get to sell fun products that people are excited to buy. The e-bike customers have been fantastic, I have to say. It's brought in a new, older generation of customers and they have become sort of my favorite people, because lots of people who are at the retirement age, who are coming in looking for e-bikes as a way to stay active, something fun to do in retirement, and they come in. They are not necessarily cyclists, so this is a whole new thing for them and to be able to give them something that allows them to go explore new places, do things on the weekends, and they come back and they're so happy. It's very rewarding to help people in that way. That's my favorite part of the job. Then I also do a lot of the buying, do a lot of the marketing, whatever needs to be done, the long-term vision being involved in the community. There's a lot that we do.

Speaker 1 13:45

Yeah, so people can come and get their bikes repaired too. Is there anything to talk about there that would be interesting for the listener?

Speaker 2 13:52

So we do everything. We do sales, repairs and rentals. The bike path in Watertown has been great because we're an easy spot for people to just walk in, go across the street and they're on the bike path, so that has been great. On the repair side of things, that part of the business has really really changed significantly, especially on the bicycle side, because the technology has just changed so much on bikes.

Speaker 2 14:16

When you think back to what it was like to work on a bike in the 80s compared to what it's like to work on a bike today that could have hydraulic brakes, a motor, an electric motor, tubeless tires, carbon fiber frames the technology is just so different today than it was back then. So to try and find skilled mechanics and labor that's probably been one of our hardest challenges is to find young people that want to learn a trade. Being a bicycle mechanic is a trade and it's a very professional trade. To be successful today you really need to have a special skill set. It's not the same as being a mechanic in the 80s. So we try really hard to find the right people to fill those needs. It's not easy. That's one of our biggest challenges is finding the good skilled labor.

Speaker 1 15:08

Yeah, so how many other people are there here other than you and your brothers?

Speaker 2 15:11

Depends on the time of the year. It could be anywhere from eight.

Speaker 1 15:17

And are a lot of them mechanic people.

Speaker 2 15:20

We have great mechanics that work here, and then we have salespeople that we bring in more in the peak season. Many of them return year after year. We have a lot of college kids, but there's always that core group that is here 365 days of the year, ready to go Right yeah, and has doing the snowblowers, and that did that help out having some mechanics that already knew about the stuff.

Speaker 1 15:41

Yeah, the motors came on the bike, so was that like a head?

Speaker 2 15:44

start for you. Well, we've had some unbelievable employees over the years. Many of them have been here or were here for, you know, 10, 15 years at a time. That's the kind of retention that we typically have, and it's funny that you ask about the power equipment and the bikes. So we've hired over the years lots of people who start off on one side of the business as sort of a, say, a bicycle mechanic, and in the wintertime, when things slow down, they love working here, they don't want to leave and they're willing to do something else.

Speaker 2 16:14

So over the years we've had lots of people transition from one side of the business being a bicycle mechanic to doing something on the power equipment side in the winter, whether it be learning how to work on snowblowers or doing the pickups and deliveries of snowblowers for us in the wintertime, and vice versa. People have started in the wintertime and then have transitioned over to help us sell bikes or build bikes or do whatever on the bike side of the business. So I think over the years we've been really fortunate that people like to work here. It's a nice environment and if you're hardworking and you're willing to try new things or learn new things, it's a great place to be had. Lots of kids who started off here, went off to college, have great careers in mechanical engineering and whatnot, and are very grateful for the experience, the hands-on experience that they had here at the shop very grateful for the experience, the hands-on experience, that they had here at the shop Nice.

Speaker 1 17:07

Is there anything else with the power equipment you wanted to talk about in terms of what people might not know about, I don't know selling or maintaining that stuff?

Speaker 2 17:12

So on the power equipment side, that part of the business has also changed significantly, especially over the past few years, with more battery type products sort of coming to market years with more battery type products sort of coming to market. The one thing that remains constant, and has from day one, is we service what we sell. So when people come in and say, oh, I can just go and buy this down the street at the home improvement store for the same price, well we say, why would you do that? They don't offer any service. They're not there for you. If you want to buy something in a box and put it together, okay, we're not your store.

Speaker 2 17:46

We assemble and service what we sell on the power equipment side and on the bike side, and that has never changed and will not change. So for people who want to pay the same price as the big box stores, or even these days with online bicycles, they can do that and have it shipped to their house and try to put it together. I don't understand that mentality because they can come in here and pay basically the same price and get all the service to go with it. So the people who appreciate that like to come here because they know what they're going to get. We're going to be here for them. If they have a problem after the fact, they come right back to us and it's sort of what sets us apart from, you know, the big box stores or buying online. Sure yeah.

Speaker 1 18:26

Yeah, it cuts back to that small business, family business, small town Well, not small town anymore, but city feel, the cozy city feel. Yes, so you mentioned that you're coming up on the 50th anniversary so I assume you've been doing some reflecting on the business. Are there any particular milestones along the way of that 50 years that particularly stick out to you or any particular stories that helped shape that 50-year journey a little bit?

Speaker 2 18:51

We have been doing a lot of reflecting. We've pulled out lots of photographs. We are planning to start doing weekly posts, with some throwback pictures starting at the end of March. So keep your eye out on Facebook and on our website for that. Just being a brick-and-mortar store, a local store, is what we've really reflected on and how much has changed in how you have to run your business.

Speaker 2 19:15

Today, versus even 10 years ago, the retail landscape is very, very different. We love being the local shop, but it's very, very hard these days, much harder than it was when my parents came over. You know for them. You bought stuff, you sold stuff. It was very straightforward, very easy. Nothing was computerized.

Speaker 2 19:35

These days, running a business has a whole slew of challenges to it Competing with online retailers, with other retails in the area, just omni-channel marketing. The level of computerization that you have to have to maintain your inventory, to keep track of your finances and running your business, your website compliance it's endless. It's a lot more challenging today than it was in the past, but we're really good at adapting and we have been over 50 years. We have to be quick to adapt. We have to listen listen to our customers, listen to what's going on in the retail environment and make those changes, and I think the companies that we've seen over the years close, it's because they didn't adapt. They either didn't want to or they didn't do it quickly enough. And that became really, really apparent during COVID, when everything was shut down.

Speaker 2 20:33

The demand for bicycles skyrocketed and luckily we were in a position where we ran a great business financially. We had a great reputation and great relationships with our vendors, so when a lot of shops were unable to get inventory, we were able to get inventory and satisfy our customers. We had a great website. People placed orders online, we quickly went to home delivery. Curbside pickup and just the ability to adapt quickly is what has allowed us to stay successful over the past 50 years. That's what we really, when we reflect on things, we just think about how many times we've changed and done things differently and you know, sometimes it didn't work, but for the most part over the course of 50 years, it has, and we're very, very grateful and we're grateful to our customers, who we have so many super nice, super loyal customers, and we're very, very grateful and we're grateful to our customers who we have so many super nice, super loyal customers, and we're just really, really fortunate.

Speaker 1 21:29

Yeah, sounds great. Yeah, adapting is an interesting thing, like, for instance, with e-bikes. So when a trend comes out, is that just you hearing people come in asking about it? You see it at like a trade show or like how do you get in the know about those new trends?

Speaker 2 21:43

I'm very involved with the industry. So the National Bike Dealers Association I'm pretty involved with them as an organization. They do lots of training for retailers. I've learned a lot through them, through a lot of their webinars that they have, a lot of the meetings that they have. We participate in some of the programs that they have to help elevate the level of professionalism of bike shops across the country. So that has really really helped us to sort of understand the best way to run a bicycle business. That also brings with it a lot about industry trends and what's going on in the industry. So we do learn about it from that. But it's also knowing your customers and what your customers want and on the e-bike side it's really changing.

Speaker 2 22:26

A lot of people are opposed or don't like the idea of bicycles and bike lanes and things like that.

Speaker 2 22:32

I'm also a driver so I can appreciate where they're coming from. But I do think that bicycles as a means of transportation or dealing with gridlock traffic or just getting more people to have independence is an important thing. So when we sort of saw how transformative the e-bikes can be for people, we knew that we needed to expand our selection of it. We also knew that we needed some more affordable, high quality bikes. So we really took a look at our product mix and actively decided which brands of bikes we wanted to bring in for those customers for our customers that were asking for something at a lower price point but didn't want to sacrifice having a high quality battery or motor and whatnot. And we now have those, and we have had them for three or four years now. So you sort of have to listen to your customers, listen to the industry, work within your means. You obviously have to take care of your business too, and that's how we look at everything you know from different angles before we make a big decision on anything.

Speaker 1 23:34

Yeah, cool, oh, going back to my parents if you don't mind, if we can go back to that, so my father and my mother worked really, really hard.

Speaker 2 23:44

They never took a handout, they just worked really, really hard and tried to just take good care of their customers to get everything built up. But one of the funniest stories and I don't quite remember this as I was really little, but before my father started with selling the snowblowers, he actually trucked in truckloads of ice and set that out in front with a snowblower and a big sign. So he had a different approach to marketing, I guess, than we had. But what better way to try and promote snowblowers than trucking in truckloads of snow in the middle of summer with a snowblower to promote it? So he was very creative. He did everything he could do to provide for his family, even if it meant doing crazy things like that. But I think the most important takeaway over the past 50 years is you have to be a good person. You have to take care of people when they come in and just be willing to adapt, to change. Those are probably the three key things.

Speaker 1 24:43

Right yeah, all good things to keep in mind. So you've been in this place for 50 years. So, you've seen a lot of change in this area, Watertown in this specific area too, the Watertown Yard area, so do you want to talk about that a little.

Speaker 2 24:57

So, thinking about the changes in Watertown Square over the years, we've seen lots of them and as a young girl I can remember a lot of things about Watertown Square that people did not know. So I do remember the metal trolley tracks on Galen Street. I do remember seeing many accidents in front of our store because cars would come down from Newton Corner and the trolley tracks would be very slick and the cars couldn't stop and they would crash at the bottom of the hill which is right in front of Farina's. So I do remember that. I remember the old theater that was just a couple of doors down from us on Galen Street and the auto parts that was next door to us. There was also a restaurant across the street called Percy's, which I remember as a young girl Car dealership a big vacant lot for a long, long time.

Speaker 2 25:46

So we are very excited about the changes that we've seen in Watertown Square, with the new buildings across the street from us, the small park that they put in, just the redevelopment of Watertown. We've gone through a lot of that. We've had to deal with road construction, road closures and whatnot to get to this point. But we are really happy with this side of Watertown Square, or at least the development on this side of the square, and we're looking forward to even more great stuff in Watertown.

Speaker 1 26:13

Yeah, and that'd be the last thing. Is there any forward-facing thoughts you want to put for another 50 years of Arenas?

Speaker 2 26:20

I'm not ready to retire yet, but at some point it would be nice to just have a Saturday or a Sunday off and not be working. Just go for a bike ride yourself. Yes, yeah, exactly yeah. The future I don't know. We're still in it for a while. We're not ready to retire, so we're not going anywhere, and we're happy to be a part of Watertown and happy to have been or become sort of an institution in Watertown. There aren't too many businesses that I can think of that have been around for 50 years, let alone run by the same people in the same location for 50 years. So we're pretty proud of that. Look forward to celebrating this year.

Speaker 1 26:55

Yeah, it's quite a feat, Congratulations.

Speaker 2 27:00

If people do want to check you out.

Speaker 1 27:01

Where should they go? You have the in-person location, but also online, if they want to check you out. Where should people go? Find out more about you?

Speaker 2 27:05

You can always come in. I'm here pretty much six days a week, so come on in any time. But we have a great website. It's farinascom. We are on Facebook. I just think meeting in person is the way to go. Come into our shop and see what we have. One last thing is a lot of times people don't realize how big the bike shop is on the second floor until they come in and see it. They'll say I've been driving up and down Galen Street for 50 years. I had no idea you had a bike shop on the second floor. But once people come in I think they're very impressed by the amount of inventory that we have and the selection that we have. So I encourage anyone who's interested in bikes or biking or bike rentals to just come on in. We'd love to see you.

Speaker 1 27:48

Yeah, come on in, be surrounded by hundreds of bikes.

Speaker 2 27:52

Hundreds and hundreds Lots of bikes, yeah.

Speaker 1 27:54

Cool, great. Well, thank you for taking the time to sit down and share your stories and thoughts, and I hope that listeners enjoyed this conversation.

Speaker 2 28:01

Thank you so much, thank you.

Speaker 1 28:06

So that's it for my conversation with Paula. You can find out more about Farina's what she mentioned. If you like the podcast, you want to find more episodes, head on over to littlelocalconversationscom. You can find all the episodes, interviews and special episodes and events coming up. And if you're listening to this close to when it comes out, next week, on Tuesday March 18th, I have my big podcast anniversary event that I'm excited about over at the Misesian Center for the Arts.

Speaker 1 28:25

I've been doing this podcast for a year. I'm going to invite some of the past guests back for a panel. It should be a great community event. I hope you'll come out. Come hang out with other people in the community. It's from 5. 30 to 7 30 pm, miss Essendon Center for the Arts, tuesday March 18th, and the donations from the tickets at the door are going to go to the Miss Essendon Center for the Arts and the Watertown Community Foundation. I also have my next Creative Chats event over at the Miss Essendon Center for the Arts on Friday morning at 8 30 pm on March 21st. It's going to be with Kristen Kenney, who is the chair of the Watertown Cultural District. So that's your type of thing as well. You can come out to that Again. You can find out information now on both of those events and everything else Little Local related at littlelocalconversationscom.

Speaker 1 29:03

All right, so a couple things to wrap up here. I got a grant this year from the Watertown Cultural Council, so I want to thank them and give them the proper credit which is this program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. You can find out more about them at watertownculturalcouncilorg and massculturalcouncilorg. I also want to give a shout out to a promotional partner, the Watertown Business Coalition. They're a nonprofit organization here in Watertown bringing businesses and people together to help strengthen the community. Find out more about them at watertownbusinesscoalitioncom. So that's it. Until next time, take care, thank you.